"The who-what-where-when-why has always been about more than the news. Implicit in its formula is a question about the dreams of others, which aren’t always lovely."
Jeff, you tunnel deep. I appreciate that.
Also, "The Lever" is a really promising outlet - so long as people can be bothered by comprehensive journalism. Or perhaps be bothered by life itself..
It’s easy to hate and easy to make people hate. Same tool. Religion, politics, economy or whatever it doesn’t matter if you have a good hate on for something. This isn’t going away and they are deep deep in America and are history. Jeff has been warning of this for years.
As a professed Christian, I found that paragraph about what church she belonged to terribly distressing. If someone has a theological hook, one can have a theological conversation - I can quote Matthew 25 all day - but I'm not feeling it here. Meanwhile, I found this sermon by a rabbi to be at least comforting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUVlLAQlNGY Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God - Rabbi Morris Panitz | Vaera 5785 / 1.25.2025
Thanks for reading, Roger. Yeah, I think that's something a lot of secular people miss about Christian nationalism. It's almost more of a problem of the unchurched than of churches; or, at least, of churches that have left behind their engagement with the believers who came before them. As long as there's such an engagement, there can be that conversation. Absent it, "God" is only power and nightmare.
Propaganda works. It works even better when the baddies cut education spending. I've known for a long time that the nonstop propaganda being broadcast to a large portion of America who also did not get a world class education was going to have to be dealt with whether we wanted to or not. It sped up in the Obama years and we are now living through the result of not dealing with a major news network broadcasting fascist propaganda for over a decade. Other networks have sprung up and social media platforms have been able to target individuals based on their psychological makeup and radicalize them in record time. Hitler only had print media and radio and what he did to the world is still felt today. We are in for a extremely hard time and yes I think bodies will swing.
I draw courage from your writing, Jeff. I don’t know how you stand and listen, but it apparently is rooted in your commitment to be human and to never stop seeing the humanity in others. Nobody writes about christo-fascist culture warriors like you and I am grateful to have found your work. I count it as an education on how to see my father, uncle, mother, and brother. It’s been hell.
Dear God what a piece of human garbage! I used to ask myself what would it take to deprogram these people. These days, I doubt if it's even worthwhile.
Thanks for reading. May I suggest, though, that speaking of people as "garbage" is a sign that our own thinking has been infected by fascism's dehumanization. Janet is wrong, consumed by hate, overwhelmed by disinformation. She's human.
While I appreciate your gentle rebuke - and perhaps in a different time and place would have said something similar myself - there are limits to compassion. As Martin Buber wrote "I cannot help withstanding evil when I see that it is about to destroy the good. I am forced to withstand the evil in the world just as the evil within myself." They seek to cause existential harm to people and institutions that matter to me. To embrace their humanity is too much of an ask. I am sorry.
Or just a blathering human being. Glad to say something to somebody. Working at a motel receptionist counter for hours at a time. Getting old watching too much of the nonsense.
Sorry, Jeff. While I sympathize and agree with a good many of your points, I have to say that posting a picture of a particular person, obviously of limited ability and, as the old saying has it, who seems to have been 'rode hard and put away wet,' offended me, as I hoped it did others. First there's the ageist element of it, then the feminist aspects, then classism. I am in my late seventies and look at least 20 years younger than your interviewee. Then again, I have always been able to eat nourishing food, get enough rest, have the leisure to read, etc. I also have 8 years of college and grad school under my belt and retired from a career as a professional therapist. BTW for the last 10 years of that career I chose to leave a lucrative private practice for one 'serving the underserved' in West Virginia--a sort of spontaneous experiment in which I learned at least as much as my clients from my sessions with them. Life can be hard, and unfair, and downright grueling in some communities. I mean, the tragedies are like those Dickens wrote about in the 19th century, with the addition of opiates and fentanyl. Not all Trump fans are as ignorant, limited and challenged as your late night conversationalist, but many of them live lives the likes of which ought to generate a more sympathetic tone when describing them. Are you blaming the victim, in some way, I wonder?
Leigh -- I'm not sure why you say Janet is of "limited ability." That wasn't my perception and I don't see it in her words, variations of which I've heard from people of all classes -- though, in every case, they come from those who do their "own research." That's a term a lot of lib/leftists mock, sometimes with cause, but it's also an activity of someone with curiosity and determination. It doesn't always lead to accurate results. I'll dispute, too, that this is ageist or anti-feminist: In many books, for many years, I've written of and photographed countless people with ideas with which I disagree, young and old, male, female, nonbinary. I've never had to resort to Dickens to grasp what they were saying, because the tragedies are constant. Some choose to pass that pain along. Had I walked in and Janet decided she wanted to tell me about something I found moving and beautiful, would you also say that couldn't be shared? Is your discomfort also about your discomfort with her views? Janet wanted to talk. She wanted me to write down what she said. She knew I didn't agree with it. She knew I'm a journalist. This is the point of the passage that follows the narrative: Does your eight years of college earn you the right to "protect" Janet from herself? As for your healthy diet and youthful appearance. That's great. I'm 52, middle class, never able to get enough rest, look older than my years and my heart is literally that of an octogenarian, such that I am unlikely ever to be an octogenarian. I too have time to read. So does Janet. That's where her ideas come from. Am I "blaming the victim"? Hell, no. I'm listening to Janet. I've never sought sympathy for a subject; to do so would be to disrespectful. My project is ongoing, and some people I write and photograph do provoke my sympathy. I don't say, "Feel sorry for them!" I respect their humanness to show it as best I can, afforded whatever brief glimpse I've been given, through the filter of my imperfect own.
Leigh, I came to Jeff's Substack from his book of the same name. I think his form of journalism is a working from the particular to the general; it is full of vignettes and experiences. I don't know if Janet is a victim. That is an assumption too
Maybe ‘Janet’ just misses her mom and the ‘good old days.’ <insert historic images of bodies swinging from trees> Sad, but possibly true. And, to Jeff, excellent use of your journalistic skills. Isn’t the 5 W’s, 1 H? How?
"The who-what-where-when-why has always been about more than the news. Implicit in its formula is a question about the dreams of others, which aren’t always lovely."
Jeff, you tunnel deep. I appreciate that.
Also, "The Lever" is a really promising outlet - so long as people can be bothered by comprehensive journalism. Or perhaps be bothered by life itself..
It’s easy to hate and easy to make people hate. Same tool. Religion, politics, economy or whatever it doesn’t matter if you have a good hate on for something. This isn’t going away and they are deep deep in America and are history. Jeff has been warning of this for years.
Thanks Jeff. It’s frightening here but I want to understand it and your work helps me to do so.
As a professed Christian, I found that paragraph about what church she belonged to terribly distressing. If someone has a theological hook, one can have a theological conversation - I can quote Matthew 25 all day - but I'm not feeling it here. Meanwhile, I found this sermon by a rabbi to be at least comforting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUVlLAQlNGY Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God - Rabbi Morris Panitz | Vaera 5785 / 1.25.2025
Thanks for reading, Roger. Yeah, I think that's something a lot of secular people miss about Christian nationalism. It's almost more of a problem of the unchurched than of churches; or, at least, of churches that have left behind their engagement with the believers who came before them. As long as there's such an engagement, there can be that conversation. Absent it, "God" is only power and nightmare.
Propaganda works. It works even better when the baddies cut education spending. I've known for a long time that the nonstop propaganda being broadcast to a large portion of America who also did not get a world class education was going to have to be dealt with whether we wanted to or not. It sped up in the Obama years and we are now living through the result of not dealing with a major news network broadcasting fascist propaganda for over a decade. Other networks have sprung up and social media platforms have been able to target individuals based on their psychological makeup and radicalize them in record time. Hitler only had print media and radio and what he did to the world is still felt today. We are in for a extremely hard time and yes I think bodies will swing.
I draw courage from your writing, Jeff. I don’t know how you stand and listen, but it apparently is rooted in your commitment to be human and to never stop seeing the humanity in others. Nobody writes about christo-fascist culture warriors like you and I am grateful to have found your work. I count it as an education on how to see my father, uncle, mother, and brother. It’s been hell.
Yes..."churches who have left behind their engagement with the believers who came before them."
They want the 10 Commandments but not the Beatitudes, Ephesians 5:22-33 but not Micah 6-8.
Dear God what a piece of human garbage! I used to ask myself what would it take to deprogram these people. These days, I doubt if it's even worthwhile.
Thanks for reading. May I suggest, though, that speaking of people as "garbage" is a sign that our own thinking has been infected by fascism's dehumanization. Janet is wrong, consumed by hate, overwhelmed by disinformation. She's human.
While I appreciate your gentle rebuke - and perhaps in a different time and place would have said something similar myself - there are limits to compassion. As Martin Buber wrote "I cannot help withstanding evil when I see that it is about to destroy the good. I am forced to withstand the evil in the world just as the evil within myself." They seek to cause existential harm to people and institutions that matter to me. To embrace their humanity is too much of an ask. I am sorry.
Or just a blathering human being. Glad to say something to somebody. Working at a motel receptionist counter for hours at a time. Getting old watching too much of the nonsense.
Jesus!
Sorry, Jeff. While I sympathize and agree with a good many of your points, I have to say that posting a picture of a particular person, obviously of limited ability and, as the old saying has it, who seems to have been 'rode hard and put away wet,' offended me, as I hoped it did others. First there's the ageist element of it, then the feminist aspects, then classism. I am in my late seventies and look at least 20 years younger than your interviewee. Then again, I have always been able to eat nourishing food, get enough rest, have the leisure to read, etc. I also have 8 years of college and grad school under my belt and retired from a career as a professional therapist. BTW for the last 10 years of that career I chose to leave a lucrative private practice for one 'serving the underserved' in West Virginia--a sort of spontaneous experiment in which I learned at least as much as my clients from my sessions with them. Life can be hard, and unfair, and downright grueling in some communities. I mean, the tragedies are like those Dickens wrote about in the 19th century, with the addition of opiates and fentanyl. Not all Trump fans are as ignorant, limited and challenged as your late night conversationalist, but many of them live lives the likes of which ought to generate a more sympathetic tone when describing them. Are you blaming the victim, in some way, I wonder?
Leigh -- I'm not sure why you say Janet is of "limited ability." That wasn't my perception and I don't see it in her words, variations of which I've heard from people of all classes -- though, in every case, they come from those who do their "own research." That's a term a lot of lib/leftists mock, sometimes with cause, but it's also an activity of someone with curiosity and determination. It doesn't always lead to accurate results. I'll dispute, too, that this is ageist or anti-feminist: In many books, for many years, I've written of and photographed countless people with ideas with which I disagree, young and old, male, female, nonbinary. I've never had to resort to Dickens to grasp what they were saying, because the tragedies are constant. Some choose to pass that pain along. Had I walked in and Janet decided she wanted to tell me about something I found moving and beautiful, would you also say that couldn't be shared? Is your discomfort also about your discomfort with her views? Janet wanted to talk. She wanted me to write down what she said. She knew I didn't agree with it. She knew I'm a journalist. This is the point of the passage that follows the narrative: Does your eight years of college earn you the right to "protect" Janet from herself? As for your healthy diet and youthful appearance. That's great. I'm 52, middle class, never able to get enough rest, look older than my years and my heart is literally that of an octogenarian, such that I am unlikely ever to be an octogenarian. I too have time to read. So does Janet. That's where her ideas come from. Am I "blaming the victim"? Hell, no. I'm listening to Janet. I've never sought sympathy for a subject; to do so would be to disrespectful. My project is ongoing, and some people I write and photograph do provoke my sympathy. I don't say, "Feel sorry for them!" I respect their humanness to show it as best I can, afforded whatever brief glimpse I've been given, through the filter of my imperfect own.
Ugly is as ugly does.
Leigh, I came to Jeff's Substack from his book of the same name. I think his form of journalism is a working from the particular to the general; it is full of vignettes and experiences. I don't know if Janet is a victim. That is an assumption too
Maybe ‘Janet’ just misses her mom and the ‘good old days.’ <insert historic images of bodies swinging from trees> Sad, but possibly true. And, to Jeff, excellent use of your journalistic skills. Isn’t the 5 W’s, 1 H? How?
Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why?, and How?
How have we gotten to this point in our culture?